Saturday, March 21, 2015

Baked Walnut Donuts + Blood Orange Glaze

What inspired this bake were the bountiful blood oranges laying around at work. Their red stains and high amount of Vitamin C immediately called for a healthy bake.

After browsing around, I set my mind on making a pretty pink glaze with the freeloaded blood oranges. I tend to turn away from any recipes that incorporates colors. (Or a lot of butter, such as butter cream or frosting for cakes- I want to still be eating sweets in my 90s!) I certainly get enough of my share from indulging on colorful/buttery non-homebakes. The blood oranges were perfect because their red color combined with confectioner sugar yielded a natural pink! A color that's rarely seen in any of my baking.

The baked walnut donut idea sounded amazing since I love walnuts and nutty sweets. Not gluten free, but they turned out very much like the gluten free pistachio cake I made. Very nutty in flavor. Light and airy in texture. I should experiment with subbing out the flour entirely next time.

For the glaze, I just whisked everything together and added enough powdered sugar to the desired glaze consistency.

Got oil/water in the white; did not whip up nicely ):

flour + yolk mixture

lumpy batter due to coarsely grounded walnuts

halved recipe made 12 minis & 6 tart-cakes

Disappointingly, the blood orange glaze came out tasting artificial and cloyingly sweet. I added zest to bring out bright citrus flavor hoping it could mask the off sweetness. My taste testers didn't find the glaze to be too sweet and noted a strong citrus flavor. It just wasn't up to my expectations. Maybe adding butter or just a splash of vanilla extract would have helped.

ready to be glazed

pretty pink!

double-glazed

Paired together, the donuts and glaze averaged out to a 3 star!
I would definitely make these again minus the same blood orange glaze.